Fly swatter



J. S. GLOMB Oct. 24, 1 944.

FLY SWATTER Filed Sept. 19, 1940 Elma/whom Patented Oct. 24, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FLY SWATTER John S.v Glom'b, Coventry Township, Summit County, Ohio, assignor of Dethlofi, Akron, Ohio ApplicationSeptember 19, 1940,- Serial No. 357,482

1 Claim.

ter blades be made from twisted paper or twine or the like coated with rubber deposited. from latex. .I believe these blades have never been put into commercial use. When made according to Buhler United States Patent 1,966,198 they are too limp for satisfactory use.

The swatters of this invention are made from a. fabric of twisted :paper or twine or the like but the fabric has been stiffened and made resilient so that when the swatter is held perpendicularly, With the handle down, the blade stands upright, but wavers when the base :of the blade is moved toward either face of the blade. Furthermore the surface of the blade of this invention preferably .comprises a central portion which is reticulated, whereas the border of the solid border prolongs the life of the edges do not readily become .frayed.

The invention will be further described in conblade as its nection with the accompanying drawing in which Referring to the drawing the handle 2 may .beof any desired type, for exampleit may be made from two strands of stiff wire which are bent at the corners 3 and 4 to outline a triangle which serves as a support onto or over which the blad is fastened.

The blade '5 isccmposed of the latex-coated fabric surrounded by the border 6. The fabric is coated with the latex after weaving and therefore the overlapping threads do not stand out distinctly but at each intersection the coating covers both threads with a single latex layer.

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged section of the fabric. In this preferred example the blad is woven from strands of twisted paper 8. The strands of twisted paper are coated with a very thin layer.

of stiiTenin-g material 9. Instead of twisted paper twine, cotton strands or the like may be employed. The stiffening may be applied to the individual strands of paper before weaving, or the stiffening may be applied after weaving. The

blade is solid. This gives desired weight to the swatter and the .Gcshen, Indiana, has

a stiffening materials sible the production one-half to T. C.

stiffening materialmay impregnate the cellulosic basewor it may form a coating on the surface of the base. I prefer to apply the stifiening :after weaving so that it holds the strands together Where they cross. he treated paper, etc. is in i turn covered with the latex coating l0.

Because of the stiffening of the twisted paper it is not necessary that the triangle formed by the bent handle cover any more than half the distance between the point I l of the folded blade and the folded down edges dle with a support which is generally triangular,

as shown in Fig.1, is preferred, any sort of handie may be employed. It is not essential that the top of the blade be folded over the handle. However, by folding the blade over as shown and uniting the roldedlover portions to the blade the portion of the blade adjacent'the handle is stiifened and this helps to support the blade and impartxto it the smooth flexing :ofthe blade which is desired when the swatter is swung to hit a fly.

.In the preferred exampe the blade of the swatter is made up of. ordinary twisted paper strands which are preferably about 3 5 of an inch in diameter or thereabouts. :olin and sold by The The grade known as Sax- Chase' Bag Company of been found satisfactory. Strands somewhat larger or somewhat smaller may be used but a strand of about this size is preferred. Strands of about this size make posof a blade with large openings which cut down the resistance of the air to the swatter when it is swished through the air, yet the blade has the desirable resistance and stiffness with flexibility requiredfor producing effective swatter that has lon life.

The mesh of fabric employed may vary. Ordinarily about six or eight meshes to the inch will be desirable for producing a swatter which has I all of the desired properties referred to.

The twisted paper is very'flexible. I have not found it possible to coat the paper or twine or cotton or the like with latex directly and produce a blade having the stiffness, etc. that is desired. To obtain these desired properties I coat or impregnate the paper strands, etc. with a stiffening agent. As a stiffening agent I prefer to use a water-proofing material and I prefer to use it as a coating to prevent the serum of the latex from saturating the paper fabric. A variety of are available for use. These include the water-proofing and moisture-proofing materials available on the market and also coatings which do not water-proof. The thickness of the coating of the stiffening agent will be l2. Although a ham Although casein and glues may be used as one of those now on' the ping the woven cellulose coated fabric inches up to the stiffening agent emthe thickness of the stiffdegree of stiffness may be blade is quickly moved even a fraction of an inch toward either face of the blade, the blade prompt 1y responds by a smooth flexing motion. If the of its own accord when the swatter is held in the upright position described. Such a blade is not satisfactory for a fly swatter becausein use it is too limp and lops over when held in a horizontal position and is too limp to be effective when swished through the air at a fly. A stiffer blade is required to cripple the fly. 'A-blade which is too stiff may mar any furniture hit by it and if brittle it will of course shatter and have but a short life. A blade which is nottoo limp, yet will flex when swished through air, and which will give when it strikes a hard surface forms the preferredswatter of this invention.

for stiffening I prefer a water-proof composition such market made from a natural or synthetic resin. Coatings containing wax and in addition any one of various cellulose derivatives or rubber derivatives, etc., are available in addition to the synthetics which-include "vinyl compounds, etc.

I have prepared a satisfactory coating for twisted paper; strands about 3 5 of an inch in diameter from a nitro-cellulose lacquer. The lacquer which I prefer to useis a Duco lacquer sold byE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company as "1608 Clear Lacquer. I dilute this lacquer with three volumes of a regular thinner. On dipfabri'c into this diluted solution at room temperature'and then removing it and allowing it to drain I form a thin nitrO-cellulose coating of the lacquer on the paper. This coating is somewhat horn-like. It produces a material from which a tough fibrous fabric is formed. I stretch'the fabric taut on a frame and dip it in the stretched condition. The coating 'stiffens the material to such an extent that the nitrowith or without the latex coating stands upright when held perpendicular at the bottom. r

Theblade which I prefer to useis about 4 /2 by 6% inches. A larger or smaller blade may be used. It may vary for example, from 3% by 5 /2 a blade-5 by 8 inches. Such a blade when folded over a triangular handle support, as described, gives a very satisfactory fly swatter blade. The folded portion of the blade will be held to the base portion by staples or rivets or a suitable adhesive. A latex adhesive may be used. Instead of applying an adhesive, the latex coated product before curing and while tacky may be folded over and pressed to itself so that when cured it will form a permanent bond.

' The latex coating may be any one of a variety of suitable formulas. It should contain filler and a vulcanizing agent and may or may not contain an accelerator, anti-oxidant etc. The latex may be vulcanized or not as desired. I prefer to use a composition which vulcanizes in the air at room upon whether .-the'size of an individual large blade than for a small blade.

T temperature. stiffening ingredients may be comblade is not stifiened it will be limp and fold over.

pounded with the latex. Whether any stiffening of the latex is desired, and how much, will depend stiffening in addition to that of the stiffening or waterproofing coating is required. The latex composition preferably contains a pigment to give the blade an attractive color.

- The composition of the latex solution should be such that in dipping the treated fabric into the latex and then removing it and allowing it to drain the fibres retain a sufficient deposit of latex so that when vulcanized the latex-coated strands have a diameter only about twice that of the uncoated nitro-cellulose treated strands, or somewhat-less.

- In order to form a solid border around the blade I prefer to fill one whole row of the woven fabric holes with a thick latex composition.

When dry this gives a highly flexible border. I'

take a large sheet of the fabric, mark out upon it the blades that are to be cut from it and then before cutting the blades I extrude a thick latex paste from a tube to fill two or more rows of holes to form the borders of adjacent blades at one time. In this way the fabric is divided into sections by these filled-in rows, each section being blade. By cutting these filledin dividing lines in two the individual blades A somewhat stiffer coating is required for a Also if the blade 'is'not supported, as by folding the corners over the end of the handle as shown in Fig. 1, a smaller blade should be used or more stiffening will be required. The character and amount of the stiffening coat and the latex coat will be varied to give the blade desired properties.

It is to be understood that the above description is illustrative and the scope of the invention is not limited thereto.

I claim: v In combination with a handle, a fly swatter blade composed of reticulated woven'fabric of twisted paper, the strands of the fabric being stiffened with intro-cellulose and the whole being coated with rubber deposited from latex.

JOHN S. GLOMB.

be assembled on to the 

